Erasti Prologue, Season Two
“They say that history is the greatest of all teachers, and the tales of past deeds define who we are in the present. What we shall become in the future, is shaped by lessons we can gleam from times past. With the telling of these tales, the light of truth, illuminates us all.” “I shall tell you of such tales. Those that are quite familiar to me, for I have spent nearly a lifetime piecing them together and archiving here, in this very tome. For years I have studied its passages and pondered its truths. Line by line, I have committed each word to memory. Perhaps now in the telling of it, I shall at last find the answers I seek.” “Our story takes place in the Western part of Clayth known as Erasti. It is a place of coin, intrigue and iron. A city abuzz with peddlers and hustlers, hard-haggling merchants, and nobles who are as competitive as they are ruthless in their pursuit of coin. Vibrant and colorful, it was once cut off from the Westlands of Kavaari by an unnatural Stormwall and carefully guarded by the Master of Storms, Feng Bao a mighty dragon. But those times have long passed. Hungry for the marketplaces of Clayth and the Mirrored Sea, trade flows from the West. Erasti sits at the heart of it, a gateway between the two continents whose streets and coffers fill. It is a city with vast promises, a place where you can realize your dreams, or see them shattered forever.” “As prosperity comes to the great city, so does many problems. The coin and the promise of riches has attracted some unsavory elements. The Watch, once a paragon of virtue, is now beset with corruption. There are no empty roads that lead to Erasti, one finds wagoneers or bandits, sometimes they are one and the same. The Grand City of Noxi, once the heart of the King’s power has fallen beneath the Vampiric Queen of the Ashlands and her horde. The devastation she laid was such, that the husk of a once vibrant capital is cursed with the slaughter of its population. Haunted, diseased, plagued, the city itself behaves unnaturally and is under a shroud of perpetual gloom. The Triumvirate of Princeps, for there is no longer a King, has called a quarantine of the City of Night, least one returns with a pox that beguiles magical healing and spreads its doom to the citizenry.” “The Prodigal Princeps, Arturo Andrazzi , has sent forth riders to all corners of Vir’Exalon. He calls all those who manifest an Aethermark to gather at Nocturne Keep, North of the Erast River, but outside the City of Noxi itself. Once a vibrant keep, it has fallen into disrepair save some new construction for a barracks, a great hall and kitchen. The Outerwall and Gate still stand from years gone by, a testament to their engineers. The Keep offers few comforts that can be found just South of the river, but the promise of the Marks, and steady coin have ensnared the interest of many.”'''